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The Great Plague
The reason the Pilgrims met no Indians aside from Samoset during the early days of their settlement was that in 1617, three years before the Pilgrims arrived, a terrible plague had spread from a Maine trading post until it had killed off the majority of the Indian population.
The Plymouth tribe of Patuxets had been especially hard hit, for they were completely wiped out. This tragedy was hailed as a godsend to the weakened band of Pilgrims, who had feared a struggle with the Indians over the land.
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It was probably smallpox, but there is no proof of what exactly it was. The accounts of the plague that I have read are very vague as far as the details of the sickness.